On this page
-
Text (4)
-
September 10, 1853.] THE LEADER. 877
-
AN ENGLISH GAOL. The Birmingham Gaol is,...
-
A DECANTER OF WINE ON EVERY TABLE. Point...
-
THE GOVKENINO CLASSES. NO. II.—Til 10 EA...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
A Monument To Napier. Napiee Has Gone Be...
be a inonument for ! N " apier : it is his due by the custom of the country . It is not due only to him , but to the country itself . For it is the only use to which wo can nOw put him to make hint a standard for those that follow , Where to put the monumeniP We know of noplace better than on the very head and front of the district which constituted his last command —on the shores of England , where he would have stood so well to defend us if we had been
attacked , and where his very name may be a word to remind the foe what sort of a man an Englishman may be . JN " ay , it appears to us that we owe him yet another tribute—it is to give him a worthy successsor . We do not mean in the Colonelcy of his regiment—a post of command , alas ! which has become half honorary , half commercial in its character—but we mean in that district which was for all its historical and political associations so well allotted to a man like Napier —the Kent Militia district . If titles do not
stray to men like Napier , let not the patronage of that district stray amongst mere titled commanders , but let some truly able man who seeks to emulate Kapier ' s power as a soldier , with his devotion as a patriot , be posted on that foremost part of England amongst the English people . Let such a man be appointed—if such can be found .
September 10, 1853.] The Leader. 877
September 10 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 877
An English Gaol. The Birmingham Gaol Is,...
AN ENGLISH GAOL . The Birmingham Gaol is , doubtless , a good place for an offender of coarse nerves and deadened sensibilities . The active and energetic officers , by their stirring measures and unexpected inflictions , stimulate the man into a wholesome activity , and send him out of gaol well hardened and sharp set . If he add cunning to dexterity he may find himself " in clover" by an expressed affection for _ the " Austin party" among the gaolers ; and if he have the good sense not to get ill , or give trouble by being weak , he wins favour in the sight of the hurried surgeon , who dislikes delay , and of the gentle Governor , who objects on principle to invalids . . But , under the late rule
, Birmingham Gaol was a bad place for an old man , a high spirited boy , a sickly lad , or a poor idiot . For being too weak to work at a crank the old man was strapped up in a tight jacket , deprivod of bread , rated as an old scoundrel , and tied for hours with his face to the wall . The boy was worked at the crank beyond the labour allotted to others , and if this partial punishment made him passionate , he was choked up in a stiff collar , deprived of bread for hours , kept without his bod for seven nights , and driven to suicide as
an escape . The sickly lad was worked at the crank till ho fell , was strapped in the jacket until no lay moaning on the floor of the cell , was roused from that by buckets of water , and while ™ 7 , Slclc was leffc in a wet cel 1 for the wholo night . The poor idiot , who jabbered sermons with a Biblo in his hand , was stiffened up in the strait jacket , and when he screamed , salt was umisfc into his mouth . The collars used in the Punishment of all the prisoners wcro of stiff lonthcr , suited in Rizes to the necks embraced , and capable of being tightened at the
discrohon of subordinates . That they were instruments of torture , is shown strongly enough by tho many suicides of prisoners , Avho A rr a 80 cond infliction of tho punishm < mt . £ < l Lieutenant Austin , the Governor , wow admits «» o laefc . He was a 8 ] feti as fco t ] l 0 . < mortti effect " oi huoJi punishment , and ho answered : — " It ; has ol certainly answored my expectations , but has iiwior increased tho insubordination among tlio ml ? r r Tll ° collar and i aokot ^ ato pain , ¦«« iho iormer has a tendency to causo a How of l ) 1 ? . ? . to tho head . " ¦ ¦¦¦ I " — •¦» . ' »« i \« ii
-Ui « details of tlieao cruelties would have but wnv CrB 01 ! ftPP » oation if Mr . Austin ' s conduct « only a pOrHOnai oxtravagnnoo . JJut hia fir , 1 ini P orfc moro tlwn iiia own fault . Wo an inV i ? "C pl % our chiof tow »» » in ill (> « ontro of tho ^ cnfc community , au institution to which ' oaro of the Government and tho attention in-iit * havo Voon fltt'ft ( liI . y directed for lion 77 ? ' ^ o ! J"sticeB virtitod tlio institution' V ( jlOvornnionfc oflicors inspected its opera-\ y ' . * * gross abuses existed in it for years . , „ .. ! . " B ' » n «) menli tlio porHonal cruelly " of tho I I lalu nontH inflicted , wo iliid tlmfc these punishvisir M ' . . « ffal ; were uimuthoriHod by tlio th < J U 8 t ) " » nnd worn in contravention of prison , regulations . Under Bodativo
Captain Maconochie , as under severe Mr . Aus-, tin , illegal punishments were systematically inflicted . If this be tolerated — if our prisons are allowed to become institutions governed according to the peculiar crotchets—kind or cruel , judicious or unwise— -of respective governors , all our imperial law and our national system for preventing crime are set utterly at naught . The ease with which English systems may be broken has facilitated the pernicious practice of individual authority . There is in fact no English system of gaol rule . One gaol is worked without
reference to the experience of another , and the separate systems of separate counties are kept as much apart as if they were worked in different countries . To collate the experiences of all our English gaols would not be a difficult task , but it is left undone . To compare the curious records of the varying effects of various punishments on different minds would be of obvious use * and could be easily effected , yet it is left undone . Punishment is administered by
quack doctors , each in his own way , and no attempt is made to raise the practice from empiricism to science . Captain Maconochie wishes to manage his convicts in a gentle and efficacious way j perhaps he has not the practical ability to make his ideas work ; and at any rate they still lack honest application or scientific test . Other gaol rulers carry out personal theories , ascending in degree-of severity from the mildness of Maconochie to the harshness of Austin . But which
is the best no general inquiry has yet tested , and no systematic supervision has lighted the way for a positive opinion . This quackery in public doings is an English vice . Our greatest industry—the working of our mines—is done bit by bit , without any of that general record which the Austrian administration has most completely carried out . The school system of Prussia , in its complete theory and regular execution , puts to shame the utter absence of national education for our people . In Spain the prison system has been brought to a practice almost perfect in the Presidio of Valencia , where gentle and careful education makes of bad men good citizens . These instances of efficient administration occur in countries where
popular spirit is dead , and men are apt to call them the fruits of despotism . But they forget the examples which the United States administration presents . The best statistical papers of the present time have been compiled by United States officials . The most efficient administration of the electric telegraph and the post-office is in America . The best organisation for the collection of facts in the interest of Science and for
the improvement of Art has been constructed by that Republican Government . The shortcomings wo have shown in our gaols proceed from a clumsiness in organizing a machinery dealing more with mind than with matter . This clumsiness is national—not tho result of popular power . Tho people know well the good , and would heartily aid the working- of beneficent
administration . In nothing arc they moro actually interested than in the operations of our gaol system ; for a gaol is a school as well as a place of punishment . It sends out citizens to mingle with the community , as well as holds fast tho faw it retains for tho hulks or tho hangman , and amcro selfish instinct prompts people to look into the training of those who arc to be the close companions of their daily walk .
A Decanter Of Wine On Every Table. Point...
A DECANTER OF WINE ON EVERY TABLE . Point out a flask of that bright wino , like liquid amber , into that decanter . Tho glass is clear , and though you may have- seen cut glass more diamond-liko in its brilliancy , this also has a brilliancy scarcely inferior . Tho decanter is placed within tho reach of tho humblest purse . By a fiscal reform tho ghvfi-dutics wero taken oft ' , and by favour of tho improvements that havo followed , still more than the mere relief from tho impost , the manufactured jewel can now adorn every household . The wino is brighl ; and rich . It is Yin Santo , a pleasant specimen of tho " partieular " winoofltnly . Or try this , in which tho ilxod air is rising like tlio sparkle of a mild champagne ; it is wino from Ah / i , whoro the pool ; Aliieri wan born , —a light and pleasant wine , of which you may drink a pint or two with only a liltlo ' increase to your gaiety . Or this , which you can Hoarccly toll in clearness or tasto from Iho best port , —a trifto nearer perhaps to thograpo , but still a wino upon
which the best judges will nod approval : it is but a good sample of the anonymous wines which are a drink of the Italians—sometimes sour , but more frequently sound , and often approaching to this quality . Or this wine , if you like a sweet one : it is from Catalonia , and you may have it by the gallon . Or , again , this , a pure Bordeaux , tasting both of the pulp and the skin , a tonic and a cordial , not the sour dilution which goes by the name . It is " too new , " but you whose taste in wine is young will not dislike it the worse for that .
JN " , any of these you can drink , we will not say instead of your beer , if you like that to " sustain" you when you are hard at work — but when you want a " social glass . " At such time beer , from its heavy flavour and heavy quality , becomes a burden instead of a pastime , and mixes indifferently with conversation . There is more where this came from , and infinitely more could be made in Itaby , Spain , or Prance . Throughout Italy the supply awaits a demand which is as yet but the dream of journalists like ourselves , who can see so far as the day after to-morrow . In the United States new wines are
now becoming a frequent invention ; samples were shown at the New York Exposition , and samples also have been tasted with much satisfaction . But in France they are still more pressing . The Council-General of the Herault has just passed an extensive resolution , asking the Emperor of the Prench to revise the customs ' tariff , in order that commercial prohibitions may be abolished and replaced by milder duties , such
as would permit Prench competition , and stimulate French industry , and would , the Council-General insinuates , induce foreign countries to take French products in greater abundance . Now , nothing can be wiser in Prance at the present moment . Consider ?! Me waste of expense is induced by the ' eost of iron for railways , which renders the structure of railways much more difficult aud burdensome than otherwise . It would
be an immense relief to our iron producing industry if we had the advantage of another market to counteract these fluctuations ; for the more markets you supply the more do the fluctuations of the different markets counteract each other . But if we go to Prance , and ask the French to extend the principle of free-trade , they will throw wine in our teeth , and ask us how wo can havo the face to call for a reduction of duties when even consideration for our own customer
will not induce us to give up the preposterous impost upon wine P We charge now about 5 * . 6 d . a gallon duty ; a hundred , or two , or three hundred per cent , on the value of thoso wines which will have the largest sale . The consequence not only is , that the duty itself restricts tho consumption , but as it enhances the price it causes the sale to be comparatively slow , and thorefore it wholly excludes from our market those pleasant wines which we mentioned at first — -the most vivacious , tho purest in their tasto ,
and the best suited to any popular palate . If specimens are introduced , in order to make them keep , they arc doctored with alcohol in various ways and deprived of thoir characteristic qualities . Wino may be sold to the Englishman , duty included , at a shilling or two per bottlegood wine , not the poison so called ; but while the reduction of duty has placed within the reach of tho humblest person tho decanter of tolerablo brilliancy , the wino to put into it is held back by an exorbitant duty , ivhioh disgraces the tariff after it has been simplified by Peel , by Wood , and by Gladstone .
The Govkenino Classes. No. Ii.—Til 10 Ea...
THE GOVKENINO CLASSES . NO . II . —Til 10 EARL Ol ? AUEItl-MOHN . Tujb Earl of Aberdeen ia Premier of England . Yofc not one thousand of his countrymen know him by sight ; in or out of London . That ; fact in a roimnciit upon tho governmental nysteni of ( . Jmit Mritnin . Tlio pooplo of ( h-oafc Britain urn utlerly ignorant even of tho character of their that Minister . Ju no monso ia ho a popular mun . Then ) is not an instnneo of bin being oiirieutural : mid not to bo eurieutured in to ho u failure in this country . Not n fmying of hiu irt in voguo 2 not a upooeli of his in roiiu'mlnirod : not n despatch of hiM liven . Up to 1 HCM ho was rogunlud » m n Tory : in J . 85 JJ ho i « boliovod to ho tho Chief of rather a liberal adinini . stnil ion : but tho enlightened country i » in doubt . Half n century in public life , Lord Ahor-
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 10, 1853, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_10091853/page/13/
-